The increasingly chaotic conflict in Iraq dominated the attention of Italians in 2004, mainly because of the possible implications of Italian military involvement in the war, highlighted by the fate of compatriots taken hostage in Iraq. As a result, domestic issues—such as the cost of living, local elections, and proposed constitutional reform—tended to take a back seat.

Anxiety in a country dominated by family ties reached its peak in September when two female aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, were kidnapped in Iraq, and the country remained without confirmed news of the two for more than three weeks. When the women were handed over to the Italian Red Cross in Baghdad, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called it a “moment of joy.” He spoke of 16 separate sets of negotiations for their release. Two Iraqi colleagues captured with the “two Simonas” were also freed. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini denied a British report of the payment of a $4 million ransom.

Three other hostages from Italy, snatched in separate kidnappings, were executed by their captors. Fabrizio Quattrocchi was among four private bodyguards working for a U.S.-based security firm seized in April by the hitherto unknown Green Falanges of Muhammad, which claimed that the killing was aimed at teaching Italy a lesson for refusing to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Enzo Baldoni, a freelance journalist, was executed in August after the expiry of a 48-hour ultimatum by the Islamic Army in Iraq, which was also calling for an Italian pullout. Baldoni’s companions were rescued in a raid by security forces in June. Ayad Anwar Wali, a 44-year-old Iraqi businessman who had lived in Italy for 24 years, was seized in August and executed 34 days later, together with his Turkish assistant; he was accused of spying for Israel. Wali had been in Iraq to sell Italian tiles and furniture.

On the battlefield the heaviest clashes occurred in May around Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, the base for the Italian military contingent. Italian correspondents on the spot focused on apparently differing approaches to the fighting by Italian and other coalition forces. Under attack from militiamen firing from the windows of a hospital, Italian forces held their fire. Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, the armed forces chief of staff, explained in Rome that Italian military tradition did not permit the causing of civilian casualties, in this case potentially among hospital patients. In the fighting one Italian soldier was killed, and troops in a key position defending a bridge over the Euphrates River were evacuated under attack. Parliament had originally dispatched the 3,275-strong contingent to Iraq on a peacekeeping mission. On a visit to Russia early in the year, Berlusconi said he considered it necessary for coalition forces to remain in Iraq; otherwise, with local contenders fighting for dominance, the country could become “another Kosovo.”

On the domestic front, the ruling House of Liberties coalition led by Berlusconi tied with the centre-left opposition in European Parliament elections in June, though the share of the largest party in the coalition, Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, dropped from 25% to 21%. In partial simultaneous local elections for 63 provinces and 30 towns, the coalition lost out to the centre-left opposition, whose most spectacular victory was in the key province of Milan. The opposition also picked up 13 other provinces, as against 8 gains for Berlusconi’s group. The prime minister blamed himself for the results, especially for having personally urged voters at a polling station to ignore “the small parties.”

The minister of the economy, Giulio Tremonti, resigned in July against a background of popular disenchantment over rising prices but principally at the insistence of Vice Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini, leader of the right-wing National Alliance (AN) party, in a sharp disagreement over policy and spending cuts. Tremonti was replaced by Domenico Siniscalco, the top civil servant at the Treasury Ministry.

During the year Berlusconi’s government took its first steps toward a sweeping reform of Italy’s constitution, in keeping with an election pledge to the Northern League, a coalition partner opposed to centralized power as “spendthrift.” In March the Senate, against cries of “Shame! Shame!” from the opposition, passed the first reading of a bill that would devolve responsibility for health and education from the federal government to the country’s 20 regions, transform the Senate into a regional body, substantially diminish the role of the president, and enable Italians to elect directly a prime minister with stronger powers. In October the lower house followed suit, amid opposition charges that reform would split the unity of Italy and create legislative chaos. MPs from both sides who were unconvinced of the need for reform predicted a rough passage for a packet that would require double votes of assent from both houses as well as confirmation through a national referendum. Reform of the judiciary was at the top of the agenda for many after bribery charges were dismissed against Prime Minister Berlusconi in December.

The state airline, Alitalia, which was facing bankruptcy, in October reached agreement with trade unions on a rescue plan drawn up by the airline’s new chief, Giancarlo Cimoli, who was already considered the saviour of the once-ailing Italian railways. The scheme involved 3,679 job losses, a pledge of boosted productivity, and Alitalia’s division into two separate bodies, AZ Fly and AZ Service. The agreement—the main condition for a vital loan—was at the cost of government guarantees of financial cushioning for those who were to be laid off.

In Milan in October the first of seven pretrial hearings began into the 2003 collapse of the Italian food conglomerate Parmalat, Italy’s biggest company, which employed some 36,000 people worldwide. The trial, which was expected to be lengthy, represented the first chance for an estimated 135,000 injured parties, including 50,000 shareholders, to seek redress for losses. The closed-door hearing was devoted to applications by “pools” acting on their behalf to become civil parties in the case. The 29 defendants included Calisto Tanzi, Parmalat’s former chief executive for some 40 years; his family relations and managers; and, initially, three of Parmalat’s banks: Bank of America, Deloitte & Touche, and the Italian branch of Grant Thornton. In what was dubbed one of Europe’s biggest financial scandals, involving a suspected colossal convoluted fraud, investigators had earlier found Parmalat’s debts to total as much as €14.3 billion (about $17 billion). The insolvent company had earlier been placed into administration after obtaining bankruptcy protection from the government.

Faced with continuing landings on its southern shores of boat people from Africa and elsewhere (nearly 10,000 during the year), Italy took drastic action in October against migrants who had transited through Libya before getting to the Italian island of Lampedusa by sea. Under a bilateral deal Italy initially airlifted 1,600 of them, in plastic handcuffs, back to Libya. Amnesty International branded the move a grave breach of human rights, since Italy allegedly denied the migrants’ right to appeal for refugee status. The opposition in Italy called it “mass deportation” and “needlessly fierce.” Italy asserted that its procedures were in keeping with international law and that, since illegal immigration was a European and not solely an Italian dilemma, it behooved European countries to tackle it jointly. In a related incident in October, 64 would-be refugees went missing when their boat, crossing from Tunisia toward Italy, snapped in two on the high seas. In June and August an estimated 301 people had lost their lives in similar tragedies.

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